If you like Hector you may have heard of a scholion to a passage of Lycophron's Alexandra that states that Hector wore his hair in what we'd call a mullet:
"Hectorian hair is said to be that which is long at the back and cut short at the front as this Lycophron says."
Scholion 1133 Ad Lycophronem
Now, the original passage refers to the Daunians, the inhabitants of the northernmost part of Apulia in southeastern Italy:
But the chiefs of the Daunians shall build for me a shrine on the banks of the Salpe, and those also who inhabit the city of Dardanus, beside the waters of the lake. And when girls wish to escape the yoke of maidens, refusing for bridegrooms men adorned with locks such as Hector wore, but with defect of form or reproach of birth, they will embrace my image with their arms, winning of mighty shield against marriage, having clothed them in the garb of the Erinyes and dyed their faces with magic simples. By those staff-carrying women I shall long be called an immortal goddess.
Lycophron's Alexandra, v.1122+
This passage is a valuable resource to examine how the Greeks viewed the Daunians in general, but for the purposes of this post it, together with Greek and native Apulian art, can show us almost exactly what this hairstyle would've looked like! (Dump incoming under the cut lol)
In general, our understanding of Daunian men's hairstyles is cloudy due to the schematic nature of Daunian art, where women are often depicted with a long braid whereas men aren't represented with any hair. Here's some examples from Iron Age Daunian stelae.
As you can see, earlier Daunian art doesn't give us much information. Here are some much later IV/III century Daunian tomb frescos from when the area was more Hellenized and Daunian art got more figurative:
As you can see, the Daunians depicted in frescos roughly contemporary with Lycophron's writing correspond pretty accurately to the image painted by the scholion. The Daunian men of this time seem to have worn their hair in a "mullet", like the other native peoples of Apulia, collectively dubbed "Iapygians" by the Greeks. Here are some examples of Apulian natives in Greek red-figure pottery:
Note the distinctly Italic clothing as well as the bronze belts, which you can also see in the stelae above and which they share with other pre-Roman Italic peoples outside of Apulia (you can read up on that here). The last image is a particularly good example to show the contrast between the Greek and the native "style". Below is a fresco from the famous "Tomba delle Danzatrici", from Ruvo di Puglia.
Now, back to Hector lol. If you like the guy you have no doubt seen this Apulian vase painting:
As much as I love it, I'm afraid it might not be Hector after all :(. This scene not only depicts the two warriors with the signature native clothing as seen in earlier examples, it also represents a particularly popular scene in Greek art for a native Italic market: the return/departure of the warrior, often accompanied by libations, as seen in the first two examples above and in the following couple of pictures.
Interestingly, though I have seen the Jatta Museum (where the vase in question is stored) suggest the identification of the scene with that of the Iliad before, it also suggests that the father of the child is actually the man on the left (who gets cut out of the pic most of the time lol), pointing out the similarities in his and the kid's clothes. It also identifies the helmet in "Hector"'s hand as a Chalcidian helmet, clearly extraneous to the otherwise characteristically Italic elements of the scene, and thus interpreted as war loot from the Greek settlers in the region.
Now, this doesn't mean this can't be Hector, Andromache and Astyanax, but it definitely doesn't seem to be the most likely case. BUT! In a weird roundabout way we learned how Lycophron might've pictured Hector's hairstyle, even if that isn't him on the vase! Funny how that works huh, one of the most famous would-be depictions of Hector might not be him but it just so happens it depicts the hairstyle a source mentions the Daunians having taking after him because the vase was produced near Daunia!
Anyways, sorry for the long post , I hope this made sense at least lmao
Every ancient Greek material culture reference I could catch in La Odisea de los Lunnis (2006)! (Not all of them, just the ones I found worthy of mention lol)
Despite being a movie for kids made twenty years ago it has an inmense amount of love and care for the source material put into it (rosy-fingered dawn is mentioned several times, there's a joke about the Homeric question, it features characters rarely seen in most Odyssey movie adaptations like Ino and Eupeithes...) and I recommend checking it out on youtube if you're interested (the automatic captions are far from perfect but they're not awful, though a lot of the very Spanish jokes can inevitably get lost in translation)
The references start with the intro, each character appears both in their puppet form and as a specific vase painting depicting them. I could not quite put my finger on what specific depiction of Penelope is shown here so if anyone has any idea do let me know!
Still in the intro, two rotating vases appear. On one of them we can spot the famous Achilles and Patroclus by the Sosias painter and Odysseus meeting Tiresias by the Dolon painter.
The city of Troy seems really accurate! It's clear the team behind the movie looked at reconstructions as inspiration. Menelaus' (the guy on the left in the two central images) shield is also a carbon copy of this hoplite's shield from a Corinthian vase! The general look of the soldiers seems to be inspired by this vase and similar ones too. (Top left recon. by Pablo Aparicio Resco) (Bottom left recon. by Archaeology Illustrated)
Armor that looks appropriately bronze-like! Yes! Like in the epics!
Odysseus' ship looks Greek! It even has eyes!!1 The shields feature designs such as the rooster and spiral from the vase on the previous section plus a gorgoneion and a bull head, as seen in vases such as the Chigi vase pictured on the right here. If you have any idea what specific piece of art the other shields could be referencing feel free to let me know.
The main area of the palace we see in the movie with an open ceiling could be inspired by Mycenaean megara like the megaron of Pylos, reconstructed here by Archaeology Illustrated. What is definitely a reference are the columns, which look basically identical to those built by Arthur Evans at the minoan site of Knossos, which are based on pictorical evidence (like the grandstand fresco shown here) despite being full reconstructions. The walls are also decorated with floral motifs which don't necessarily call back to any specific ancient Aegean fresco I could think of but still get the point that palace walls were decorated and not barren across!
In terms of costume I wanted to highlight these two. One of Penelope's servants wears a wrapped hairstyle commonly seen in Greek pottery. Circe's and Penelope's hairstyles also seem to be inspired by ancient iconography. Antinous wears a leopard's pelt around his shoulders, which could either be considered a luxury item or an indicator of the "wild", "uncivilized" nature of the suitors, both of which would be really appropriate for Antinous. Whatever the case, it's an artistic choice that has that homeric taste imo, calling back to people like Paris and Menelaus wearing leopard pelts in the Iliad.
There's definitely more stuff I could mention, but I think these are all the major details I noticed!
completed weaving of the penelope skyphos from chiusi:
the header is tablet-woven linen, with the linen weft for the band used as the warp for the rest of the piece on a warp-weighted loom, which you can see in the photos below (there is also a previous post with more process photos here). the reverse is a negative mirror image of the front, since I wove this as double-weave pickup rather than tapestry:
additional details below the cut:
the bottom and side borders of the finished piece are tablet-woven with a mixture of linen and mercerized cotton. the sides are a classic meander motif, while the bottom border includes the "X" square from the skyphos itself. the bottom border was woven directly onto the piece using the remainder of the warp beneath penelope's feet (tablet draft for anyone interested—I designed it to be twist-neutral and everything). the side borders are sewn on because I didn't set up the side borders when I started the project, but ellen harlizius-klück previously executed a stunning version here that has the side borders woven in, as well as a really helpful video on this technique.
I was originally planning to leave part of the black warp threads unwoven to serve as penelope's warp, the way I did a few years ago with the amasis painter vase:
but I couldn't figure out how to execute it well in this version, especially since I was doing double-weave and not tapestry. perhaps next time! overall, this was a complicated and fun project as a first warp-weighted loom piece. I learned a lot of important lessons—chief among them being to actually calculate warp lengths instead of eyeballing them and to increase the loom weights on the warps for better tension. unfortunately, I also learned I want to build a large warp-weighted loom (the one I have now was made by jennifer marcus at fiber paintings studio and it is lovely, but I would like to weave larger pieces.)
the original pot also features telemachus standing over a grieving penelope (I had room only for his spear), perhaps a reference to the scene in book 1 when he reprimands his mother and orders her back upstairs:
Odysseus was not the only one
who did not come back home again from Troy.
Many were lost. Go in and do your work.
Stick to the loom and distaff. Tell your slaves
to do their chores as well. It is for men
to talk, especially me. I am the master.
οὐ γὰρ Ὀδυσσεὺς οἶος ἀπώλεσε νόστιμον ἦμαρ
ἐν Τροίῃ, πολλοὶ δὲ καὶ ἄλλοι φῶτες ὄλοντο.
ἀλλ᾽ εἰς οἶκον ἰοῦσα τὰ σ᾽ αὐτῆς ἔργα κόμιζε,
ἱστόν τ᾽ ἠλακάτην τε, καὶ ἀμφιπόλοισι κέλευε
ἔργον ἐποίχεσθαι: μῦθος δ᾽ ἄνδρεσσι μελήσει
πᾶσι, μάλιστα δ᾽ ἐμοί: τοῦ γὰρ κράτος ἔστ᾽ ἐνὶ οἴκῳ.
Od. 1.354–359. Emily Wilson translation.
my plan is to eventually create a larger version of this piece that includes telemachus and the meta aspect of unwoven warp threads. it would also be interesting to figure out if I can weave a different image on the back of the cloth, since the reverse of the pot itself depicts eurycleia recognizing odysseus as she washes his feet.
they should invent an odyssey adaptation that actually has all the ithaca scenes, plus the ones at the start of the text, plus telemachus' journeys, and still can have all the female characters represented all fitting nicely into the runtime...
oh wait i just invented LA ODISEA DE LOS LUNNIS (2006) the most PEAK odyssey adaptation ever it even has curly haired odysseus with his little hat
Vendors from the Kingdom of Naples (unknown artist): a woman selling eggs and mozzarella, an oil seller, a man selling taralli and a flour vendor. On the right, a man selling chickens
Scenes by Saverio della Gatta (1758 - c. 1828), in order:
I love this artifact in bronze and gold from hellenistic Taranto because it's such a gorgeously sculpted piece of art and it also happens to be a nutcracker lol. Someone used these to crack nuts and I find that so amusing
